Stephany Graham

Mr. Swing
Literature & Composition
04/24/2015
The Metamorphosis critique

The novella The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka was written in 1912. Kafka was born in 1883 in
Prague what is now the Czech Republic. Kafka grew up in a middle class Jewish family, he had
two younger brothers Georg and Heinrich but both of them died of infancy by the time he was 6,
leaving him the only son in a family with three daughters. The relationship between both of his
parents were crucial, his mother lacked to understand the intellectual dream of his son to
become a writer and his father had a compelling personality that often overwhelmed in the
family; he had a success in business and for the Kafka family, his father had a profound impact
on Franz Kafkas life and writing.
The book is based on the life of Gregor Samsa, he was a travelling salesman who disliked his
job and had to work to pay the debts of his family since his mother was weak, his sister was too
young to work and his father had stopped working, but one day when he wakes up and noticed
he is an insect. Gregor no longer feels that he can be able to send his sister to school nor be
able to take care of the family. His inability to leave the room allows him time to reflect on his
past accomplishments, insignificant relationships and his now out of reach goals. The doors
closed is a theme for rejection, at first the family left the door slightly open or came often to
clean and to feed Gregor. As the story progressed, the familys feelings towards Gregor become
antagonistic leading them to close the door shut to keep Gregor inside, his sister who at the
beginning was in his side and was his caretaker she was the first to announce that Gregor
needs to leave the house.
The transition from man to bug is one that consumes Gregors thoughts and actions. Physically
he is an insect, but mentally he has human thoughts and is divided between the insect and the
human thoughts having two minds inside one body. An example would be when his sister and
mom were going to take out his picture of the scantily clad women which Gregor does not want
them to take out. Thoughts by the insect is when it will eat rotten food and at this he finds
interesting and enjoyment by hanging from the ceiling. Even though the cartesian split this two
minds has, he still worries about his family and the hardships he had brought to them.
From his transformation it can be linked to self identity and the cartesian split. Once Gregor was
socially acceptable but now he is refrain to be. This can bring the question whether he still is
human? If Gregor is not in his original self does that has the ability to have a new more
complete self identity? Should he based his self form on how he is or on how well he fit into his
family or should he believe he is more himself because he is living against what is to be an
insect.